Data Management, Results Monitoring and Evaluation
UN RCO
Publicado el 08/03/2026
1/2 Thank you, Silva, for the reflections. Indeed, the original Three Horizons framework was never meant to imply a neat, linear pathway to a “better version” of today. Its strength lies in revealing the limits of H1 and pointing to the fundamentally different logic required for H3.
Where I extend the discussion is within the development and humanitarian space. Here, we are not only imagining alternative futures we are co‑creating and implementing strategies that shape them. In such dynamic and fragile environments, frameworks like 3H inevitably become both diagnostic and design lenses. The aim is not to turn 3H into a traditional planning tool but to use it to question our assumptions so we don’t reproduce the very systems we hope to transform.
Adapting the three Horizons to complex realities is essential. While it is not a linear roadmap, it pushes us to ask: Are our interventions opening space for transformation or reinforcing H1 or keeping people in H1.5 survival mode? Do our strategies address structural drivers of vulnerability or optimize the current system? What assumptions, power dynamics, and institutional dynamics must shift for real change?
RE: Foresight Meets Reality: Using Three Horizons to build a Gender-Responsive, Human Rights-Based, and LNOB Results-Oriented Theory of Change
Zimbabwe
Getrude Nyashadzamwari Matsika
Data Management, Results Monitoring and Evaluation
UN RCO
Publicado el 08/03/2026
1/2 Thank you, Silva, for the reflections. Indeed, the original Three Horizons framework was never meant to imply a neat, linear pathway to a “better version” of today. Its strength lies in revealing the limits of H1 and pointing to the fundamentally different logic required for H3.
Where I extend the discussion is within the development and humanitarian space. Here, we are not only imagining alternative futures we are co‑creating and implementing strategies that shape them. In such dynamic and fragile environments, frameworks like 3H inevitably become both diagnostic and design lenses. The aim is not to turn 3H into a traditional planning tool but to use it to question our assumptions so we don’t reproduce the very systems we hope to transform.
Adapting the three Horizons to complex realities is essential. While it is not a linear roadmap, it pushes us to ask: Are our interventions opening space for transformation or reinforcing H1 or keeping people in H1.5 survival mode? Do our strategies address structural drivers of vulnerability or optimize the current system? What assumptions, power dynamics, and institutional dynamics must shift for real change?